No. 6.
Mr. Taft to
Mr. Frelinghuysen.
[Extract.]
United
States Legation,
Vienna, November 28, 1882.
(Received December 16.)
No. 26.]
Sir: Inclosed I send an article, cut from a leading
journal here, evidently written in the interest of the producers of meats in
the Austro-Hungarian Empire. You will observe that it is proposed to extend
the prohibition heretofore existing against pork to beef, and to all kinds
of American meat. I have called upon the foreign office to inquire as to the
purposes of the Government in regard to this matter, but could get
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no indication that the Government had
it under consideration at all. Yet there seems to be an expectation that the
Government will adopt the suggestions of this article. Two gentlemen of this
city, Austrians, who are importers of American meats, have called upon me to
see what could be done to prevent the carrying out of this purpose. They
were very much alarmed, and said that if carried out it would ruin their
business altogether. I have thought it proper to call your attention to the
subject and ask your instructions.
In this connection I should be glad to know what is the present position of
the French Government on the same subject. * * * I hope that this Government
has no purpose to extend the prohibition, as has been suggested, but that,
on the contrary, it may be induced, on a more full consideration of the
facts in the case, to rescind its order against our pork; but it would seem
to require some attention at this point.
I ought to add that the doctor, Kammerer, who presented these propositions to
the city council of Vienna, is the head officer of the sanitary department
of the city. To us, who have so long lived upon American meats without a
thought of danger or of any need of inspection, and who have had far more
fears of being struck by lightning than of being made sick by eating
American beef or pork, the idea of forbidding the importation of our pork or
beef into European markets on sanitary grounds seems very absurd; but there
is evidently a good deal of pains being taken to create apprehensions among
the people of danger from eating American meats.
I am, &c.,
[Inclosure in No. 26.—Extract from the
Vienna Tagblatt of November 5, 1882.—Translation.]
measures against trichinosis.
In the Rudolf’s Hospital a death occurred recently caused by trichinosis,
in consequence of which the city physician, Dr. Kammerer, submitted a
memorandum to the city council containing precautionary measures to be
adopted against the spreading of this dangerous disease.
The examination of the meat of slaughtered animals takes place at
present, as is known, in the districts of Vienna, by market
commissaries, who go to the respective parties after having been
notified. This measure the city physician finds inadequate, since at
present a reliable control over these slaughtered animals is
lacking.
As the best measure against the sale of meat injurious to health, the
city physician points out the extension of the law requiring the killing
of hogs to take place in public slaughter-houses in Vienna and the
suburbs, since by these means alone a prompt, unexceptional, and
technical examination of the animals can be arrived at.
Already by the law of March 9, 1866, published by the governor of Lower
Austria, a proper inspection of meat conducted in conformity with the
regulations is required, and stress is laid upon the public instructions
concerning trichinosis published by the governor of Lower Austria in
1877, that the exact microscopical examination will be
possible only when public slaughter-houses shall exist everywhere,
and slaughtering be allowed to take place only in such.
The city physician makes the following suggestions in the interest of the
public health:
- First. The slaughtering of hogs in the houses of the
respective trades-people should be prohibited, and the
slaughter-house requirement should be extended, for the reason
above alluded to, to the slaughter of hogs.
- Second. That means should be adopted to establish this law
also in the suburbs, where, until now, it does not exist (not
even for oxen).
- Third. For every slaughtered hog brought from the suburb into
Vienna, proofs should be adduced that it has been examined
microscopically.
- Fourth. For sausages and smoked meats imported from abroad,
proof should be demanded, on passing the custom-house, that they
are free from trichinӕ.
- Fifth. The import of meat, of whatever kind, from America
(so-called canned meat, &c.), should be prohibited without
exception, on account of unreliable control and doubtful
origin.
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Fatal infective diseases are likewise of frequent occurrence among
American cattle and the so-called Texas fever, a disease related to the
rinderpest, has made sad havoc and since beef
has a higher value than hogs, and this disease may lie dormant for a
long time in the animal, there can be, no doubt that such meat is
prepared as corned beef.
Aside from this, Mr. Mayer, a chemist, has shown the presence of lead in corned beef; that is to say, as much as
99 milligrams in one box. To this it must be added that even the
American newspapers have pointed out the fact that not only horse flesh,
but also the meat of diseased animals, has been used by the people in
the business. Since the preparation of canned meat does not destroy the
disease, the question is: Are we bound to the consumption of corned
beef, and is the consumption of it a pecuniary advantage?
These questions must be answered in the negative. The first by the fact
that frequent diseases have resulted from eating these conserves; the
second, by the circumstance that the box weighing one kilo contains
about seven hundred grams of eatable meat, which, at one mark and
seventy five pfennige, is sold at a higher price than a domestic article
of equal value. In Vienna, likewise, these conserves are met in the
market, and most dealers in delicacies sell the box for one florin and
twenty kreutzers, or much dearer than a domestic article of the same
value. For these reasons the proposition of the city physician to
prohibit the import of American meats of all kinds is no doubt perfectly
justified.
